Using Information Centric Networking for Mobile Devices Cooperation at the Network Edge

This paper presents an Android application exploiting a collaborative multi-RAT approach (cellular and Wi-Fi Radio Access Technologies) for adaptively streaming video content. The application has been developed and tested on real Android devices of different vendors. Each device coordinates with the others to download portions of a video stream through its own preferred RAT, and shares the results with the neighboring devices through a proximity, high bit rate network based on Wi-Fi Direct. As a result, the aggregate bandwidth available to the group of collaborating devices allows a faster download and a higher quality of video playback streaming, with respect to what is achievable by a single device. The application is designed to exploit common Android devices along with the key functionalities of an Information Centric Network: routing-by-name, in-network caching and multicasting.